Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery

Location

Vis-en-Artois and Haucourt are villages in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais, on the road from Arras to Cambrai. The Cemetery is at the north side of the main road between the two villages.

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Historical Information

Vis-En-Artois and Haucourt were taken by the Canadian Corps on the 27th August 1918, and the cemetery was begun immediately afterwards. It was used by fighting units and Field Ambulances until the middle of October.

It consisted originally of 430 graves (in Plots I and II), of which 297 were Canadian and 55 belonged to the 2nd Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.

It was increased after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields of April-June 1917, and August and September 1918, and from the smaller cemeteries in the neighbourhood.

There are now nearly 2,500 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, nearly two-thirds are unidentified and special memorials are erected to seven soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Canada, known or believed to be buried among them.

Other special memorials record the names of four soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves could not be found on concentration.

The cemetery covers an area of 6,577 square metres and is enclosed by a rubble wall.

At the far end of the cemetery you will find the Vis en Artois Memorial to the Missing

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The Cemetery and Memorial at Vis-en-Artois

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Of the burial grounds from which graves were brought into this cemetery.

• Bois-du-sart British Cemetery, Pelves, at the North-Western angle of the Bois-du-Sart, contained the graves of ten soldiers and airmen from the United Kingdom and nine soldiers from Canada who fell in August and September 1918.
• Dury German Cemetery was on the South-East side of Dury village, a little South of the road to Saudemont. It contained the graves of four British and 49 German soldiers.
• Ecourt-St Quentin German Cemetery is now a permanent cemetery, on the East side of the road to Lecluse. It contained the graves of 16 soldiers from the United Kingdom.

Ecourt St Quentin was the first liberated village in which local inhabitants would be found.

• Etaing Communal Cemetery German Extension contained the graves of six soldiers and airmen from the United Kingdom, who fell in 1917 and 1918, 331 German soldiers (including some who fell in August 1914), and two Russian prisoners.
• Lecluse German Cemetery, on the West side of the village, contained the graves of 476 German soldiers, eleven soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1917, and one Russian prisoner.
• Monchy Quarry Cemetery was in a quarry 800 metres South-East of Monchy-le-Preux. It contained the graves of 22 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in July 1917.
• Pelves Canadian Cemetery, nearly 1.6 kilometres due South of the village, contained the graves of 39 soldiers from Canada who fell in August and September 1918.
• Pelves Communal Cemetery German Extension contained the graves of two soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in 1917.
• Rumaucourt German Cemetery, on the Southern edge of the village, is a permanent cemetery which contained the graves of 21 soldiers from the United Kingdom and six from Australia.
• Sailly-en-Ostrevent Communal Cemetery, which was destroyed by shell-fire, contained the graves of three soldiers from the United Kingdom (two of which were recovered).
• Vis-en-Artois Communal Cemetery German Extension, which was very badly shelled, contained the graves of 621 German soldiers, 14 from the United Kingdom, eight French and five Russian.

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